Saturday, October 25, 2014

Photography at the V&A and EAG's 99th show

Easy to forget how lucky those of us in London or with easy access to it are.

Yesterday I spent some time at the V&A and as well as a really lovely café there's a surprisingly succinct and holistic Photograph section on the third level (I think)

In fact the history of photography in some ways is surprisingly short at around 150 years although there are some arguments that would extend this to include such devices as the Camera Obscura and associated projection tools used in Artist studios (including perhaps da Vinci) to assist in the making of their creations.
Horst- Now open at the V&A

What I drew from the Photograph room at the museum was that from the earliest days there were tensions between the science and the art as well as the medium being used as an instrument of record and a creative tool.

What I noted were the following

Edward Hartwig's -Vienna by Night is the picture on show

Wolfgang Suschitzky -Salzburg is a cracker of a picture

of course one can not omit 

Henri Cartier-Bresson  and the picture here is Shop Window (Hungary)

the stand-out for me was

Berenice Abbott and her New York at Night - it's amazing and here's the background story.

The curation is key to a strong room and there's plenty of monochrome works in evidence with some interesting early pictures that have been hand coloured.

As well as the works on show the Museum has a great amount in storage and a nice on-line presence too.




Ealing Art Group celebrates its 99th  at Pitzhanger Gallery

It's only on for a couple of days or so but local arty types are showing their wares at the 99th Exhibition- question is where the 100th will take place?

I've been told that Pitzhanger Gallery is  unlikely to be available in 2015  as the exciting expansion plans will put  the Gallery out of service until 2017.

It must delight the creators of works to see others admiring the efforts and some of the pictures are snapped up by the visitors to the show

No shortage of views of Osterley Park and the like

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